Driving games can hardly be called the most innovative. Most franchises - and it's almost always a franchise these days - aim to provide as realistic an experience as current hardware is capable of, while others favour more stylistic approaches. Despite their immediate differences though, for the most part they are all put together rather similarly. Little wonder then that non-fans find themselves increasingly bored with the genre.

Enter Codemasters and its latest TOCA Race Driver entry. While the original instalments in the long running series featured only the eponymous touring cars, the company has since embraced the variety offered by the automotive industry. This year's update, TOCA Race Driver 2, brings an impressive range of driving experiences to the table that builds upon last year's solid base.

In many ways, driving games offer the simplest basis for quality assessment: How does it drive? In this case, though, that's not so easily answered. There's a bewildering array of vehicles on offer, from touring and rally cars to Formula Ford carts, trucks, and much more, each with their own distinctive handling, look and sounds. Problem is, while the difference in handling of each type is very noticeable, some are sorely underdeveloped.

Driving a big rig truck may be fun in reality, but guiding a lurching hulk of metal through chicanes while accelerating through the tar molasses makes for a rather dull experience. At the other end of the spectrum, touring cars are a joy to drive. The feeling of gunning the straights of Zandvoort with the Dutch countryside whizzing by at over 300 km/h is very real.

The developers have gone for a compromise between all-out sim and wimpy arcade style racing, and it's a healthy combination. You won't be penalized too harshly if you happen to trim the grass as you cut a corner a touch too close, but you can't just hold down the accelerator the whole time either. The physics are a little lopsided: several of the car types - like the atrocious Formula Fords - slip and slide as if on ice. Even the better handling vehicles like the American muscle cars feel a little loose and lightweight, and the rally stages take a little getting used to if Gran Turismo or Rallisport Challenge have been your only experiences of the sub-genre.

While some aspects of the gameplay are flawed, the setup of the main career mode makes for an interesting experience. There's a more-than-superficial story keeping everything together that unfolds via movie sequences following each series of races. Surprisingly, these sequences feature some of the best voice acting available at the moment. Conversations with your mechanic and agent feel true to life, without that stilted delivery we have come to expect from voice acting in games. There's nothing new covered in the cursory yarn though, but the mere fact that it's there does help to make it feel like you're actually playing through a career. You'll go from a lowly amateur to works driver, making your way through umpteen cars, tracks challenges and racing styles.

And the difficulty is well-balanced too. Some of your opponents are significantly better than you, but the rules for advancement given before each series allow some leeway, meaning that it's not only the most talented or diligent who will be rewarded for putting time into the game. Opponent AI is at once frustrating and delightful in its aggressiveness. Certain races will require you to stay ahead of a rival gunning for the same sponsored seat as you, and it's not at all uncommon for him to bump and bash his way through while trying to best you.

There's no garage, so packrats looking to horde a virtual collection of those cruelly-out-of-reach favourites might be disappointed. What the game does offer is a lot more fun: vehicle damage. While the makers of Gran Turismo constantly cite the reticence of manufacturers to see their showroom eye-catchers catching so much as a scratch, Codemasters has somehow managed to convince many of the very same companies to give its coders total freedom in obliterating thousands of pounds worth of automotive engineering at a finger's flick.

There are five zones on the cars that show damage, each of which can take three levels of abuse before your auto is kaput. What this system does is add to your race strategy. While you can't simply slam into cars and barriers to shave seconds off your lap times like you can in the more staid racers, perfecting your glances off obstacles and opponents will yield much the same effect. Damaged cars do travel noticeably worse than fresh ones, so you'd be advised to keep the wanton destruction to a minimum, but at the same time the ten-year-old inside you will giggle uncontrollably as you batter your rally car into rocks, walls, barriers and ditches, trying to break each window and tear off all four wheels.

The control system features the now-standard use of both analog sticks, splitting steering and acceleration/braking duties between them. It's a comfortable system that proves vastly superior to the old button-based setups, although one is included for gamers not quite ready to give completely in to full analog control quite yet.

Outside of car handling, tracks serve as the second biggest selling point for racing games, and TOCA Race Driver 2 excels in this regard. Race fans will be overjoyed to find accurate recreations of dozens of famous tracks from across the globe, including such familiar locales as Laguna Seca, Pike's Peak and several Formula 1 mainstays. The crisp graphics and detailed textures give everything a slick veneer, even as you hurtle down back straights with nary a pop-up in sight.

While the time-sapping (in a good way) single-player mode is sure to steal more than a couple nights of your life, the developers have not forgotten to include something for Saturday nights with your mates. System Link and Xbox Live modes means that you'll never be without human competition. Offline, you're limited to two contestants, while taking the race online allows up to 12 drivers to battle it out.

For me, though, it's all about the career mode. While not quite a caRPG, it's a move away from the same-old-same-old that infests the bulk of racers. The solid presentation and excellent story development gives you a chance to really get into the game. Yes, there are some problems with the gameplay at times, but TOCA Race Driver 2 looks and sounds good, drives well and, most importantly, entertains.

Graphics

Sound

Gameplay

Depth

Presentation

OVERALL

9.0

7.0

8.0

8.0

9.0

8.0

THE VERDICT:
If you're done with Project Gotham Racing 2 and you're in the market for another driving game, TOCA Race Driver 2 might be just what you're looking for. While no part of the game revolutionizes the genre, for the most part everything is neatly taken care of. There's some sloppy gameplay here and there, but with the panoply of racing styles on offer that's inevitable. The story elements, while not at all interactive, do serve to make the experience that bit more interesting, and combined with the solid gameplay this makes for a game that genre fans would definitely want to have a look at. Oh, and it's also arguably the best looking racer on any format right now.

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